Setting up a home office sounds simple enough. You buy a desk, a computer, a file cabinet and you are in business.

But it's not always that easy.

"A home office has to function for the type of work you do," says Marsha Sims, owner of Sort-It-Out in Miami Lakes. A professional organizer who specializes in home and professional offices, Sims helped Michelle Marchand organize her office in the bedroom of her South Beach apartment.

Marchand, who lectures on motivation techniques, stress and time management, didn't have to buy any furniture but she needed help to make her small office space more efficient.

Sims starts the home office organization process with a consultation. "I ask a lot of questions -- what their goals are, what they need to work efficiently?"

"When she asks questions it makes you think how you work," Marchand says. "It makes you come up with answers - I need to do X, Y and Z."

Marchand's desk, a two-drawer file cabinet and a bookcase were arranged under the window and along one wall of her bedroom. Sims never urges her clients to buy all new furniture, but Marchand did buy a laptop to replace the bulky PC she had used for years. And she bought a good, ergonomic chair, which she assembled herself.

"You have to think about how you are going to store something," Sims advises. ‘‘Business cards, for instance. If there are people you call by zip code, you can create a database that would be more efficient than piling the cards in a basket. But a basket is OK if you don't need to use the cards frequently."

If your work involves paper, you must have a file cabinet, Sims maintains.

"A woman at a seminar told me she didn't like file cabinets because they were ugly, so she kept her files in a wicker cabinet that wasn't efficient," the organizer recalls. ‘‘File cabinets aren't supposed to be beautiful; they were designed for paper. If someone makes the file cabinet an obstacle - such as keeping it in a closet - they don't file.

"And you can do so much with basics such as a shelf. You don't have to use it for books. A shelf can adapt to all sorts of storage needs."

One thing Sims doesn't like are plastic storage bins because even if they are only half full "you still have this bulky bin that's taking up space. Condense things if possible."

Some of the simplest things help make a home office efficient. "You have to lay out things that you need access to on a regular basis," Sims advises. "You may use post-it notes every day but Scotch tape only occasionally. The notes should be next to your computer; the tape can be stored in a drawer."

Speaking of drawers, Marchand had a "junk drawer where I thought I could find anything when I needed it." It was the one thing she didn't show Sims, who eventually discovered the jumble of office supplies. With the help of a couple of organizing trays, it's now neat and efficient.

Diane Schwartz, an image consultant who lives in Delray Beach, hired Sims more than five years ago to help her set up a home office in the second bedroom of her home.

"It has a walk-in closet and I had it full of clothes, the vacuum cleaner," Schwartz says. "Marsha advised me to take those things out and devote it to office things - my business supplies, all my image color systems. I've managed to keep the closet organized, but you have to keep on top of it."

Schwartz, whose work takes her to clients' homes where she aligns their appearance with their profession, advises keeping a home office as neat as possible in order to work efficiently.

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